Saint Matthew’s Representative Payee Program is an outreach ministry of St. Matthew’s Episcopal church in Newton, Kansas. The program helps clients achieve self sufficiency by attending to clients’ basic expenses that would otherwise be left unpaid. Without the program’s service, our clients would undoubtedly incur late fees, indebtedness, poor credit, homelessness and more unemployment. The program empowers our clients to reach their goals.
The program has been a ministry of St Matthews for twenty years and serves approximately 140 clients, and typically on Tuesday mornings 40-50 clients are present at the church. Our policy to try to fulfill any client financial wish during the upcoming week, so clients can have access to whatever it is they believe they really need to purchase using their own money.
Our Outreach Mission
The primary goal of the Payee program is to help the beneficiaries obtain financial security. In addition to assisting the beneficiary with a stable disbursement of their funds, Saint Matthew’s staff and volunteers are a positive influence in helping the beneficiary in other areas of their lives. We foster independence by providing social support, serving as a role model and providing community referrals. Payee volunteers ensure that the beneficiary’s day to day needs for food, shelter and personal needs are met.
St. Matthew’s Volunteers
This outreach ministry is blessed with 25 volunteers, twenty who are there on Tuesdays, another who sets up, and two more volunteers who do work in the afternoon when the clients are not present. These volunteers have been faithful and dedicated over many years, which speaks to the value of the program. Katie encouraged everyone on the Vestry to visit on a Tuesday and see the wonderful interaction between volunteers and clients. Our volunteers meet with each client once a week and together we work on special needs the client requires.
Therapy Dogs!
Our clients LOVE our therapy dogs. Some clients have been able to overcome their fear of dogs by being able to interact with Jordy over time and have been able to actually pet him, when once they were too afraid to do so.
Fr. Les leaves his door open on Tuesdays, and typically has clients step in for prayer or conversation.
Our Payee Program is a fee for service program, which means that the program can charge for their services, $42 per month, and the volunteers determine if the client can pay the fee that month. The program also has clients who reside in nursing care facilities, and for those clients the program is not allowed to charge a fee for services, as those individuals receive only $62 per month for their personal needs.
About the Representative Payee Program
The Social Security Administration appoints a payee to receive the Social Security or SSI benefits for anyone who can’t manage or direct the management of his or her benefits. . A payee’s main duties are to use the benefits to pay for the current and future needs of the beneficiary, and properly save any benefits not needed to meet current needs. A payee must also keep records of expenses. When the Social Security Administration requests a report, a payee must provide an accounting to us of how he or she used or saved the benefits.
A representative payee (payee) manages benefit payments for our beneficiaries who are incapable of managing their Social Security or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments. Social Security law and regulations require payees to use the payments they receive for the current needs of the beneficiary and in their best interests. While serving as a representative payee, we encourage you to go beyond just managing payments and be actively involved in the beneficiary’s life.
Interested in Volunteering for this Outreach Ministry?
We are always welcoming an looking for volunteers to become Representative Payees for our clients who are not able to manage their monthly income without support because of mental illness or other reasons. Volunteers may work one-on-one with consumers on a regular basis to build relationships and to be a positive role model, or only work with bank statement. You don’t have to have a financial background, and you’ll have guidance every step of the way. Basic computer and internet skills are required for this opportunity. If you are interested, please contact us via the website or calling (316) 283-3310.
Charitable Funding
Saint Matthew’s Payee Program is partially funded by Harvey County United Way, charitable contributions, private donations, church in-gatherings.